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Indie VR developer Mixed Realms, creators of badass VR ninja simulator, Sairento, announced this week plans for their next chapter, coming in the form of Sairento Reborn. Described as “bigger and better,” SairentoReborn hopes to open up the title, allowing cooperative hack & slash fun for both VR and PC players.

Speaking this week at the HTC’s Vive X demo day in San Francisco, Singapore-based indie studio Mixed Realms said that their first title, Sairento, has turned a significant profit, to the tune of a claimed “3,000% ROI” on an initial development fund of $30,000 (which would work out to $900,000); the developers tell us they’ve sold about 40,000 units so far.

Sairento, which plays like a mashup between Raw Data (2017) and Superhot VR (2017), offers players the chance to become an agile super-ninja, wielding swords, guns, bows, and more. The game has been released across all major VR platforms (Steam, Oculus, and Viveport), and holds respectable ratings across the board. The title began its life in Early Access on Steam in late 2016 and claimed its full launch in February, 2018.

Image courtesy Mixed Realms

Aiming to springboard off of their initial success, developer Mixed Realms said during the Vive X event that they’re planning to raise $3 million for the production of the next chapter, Sairento Reborn. From the description offered by the developers, the new title sounds more like a reboot, with a much larger scope than the original, and one major goal being to open the door to PC players as well as VR players, allowing both to play with and against each other.

The plan, the developers say, is to offer the same kind of first-person action as the original, for VR players, while PC players will play the game in third person. The studio plans to balance each side fairly, but uniquely. Mixed Realms says they plan to sell Sairento Reborn at a lower price than the original, but will monetize further with subscription and microtransaction options—they pointed to Overwatch (2016) as a game successfully monetizing with this model.

Third-person for flatscreen players, first-person for the folks willing to jack into the cyberscape.

Aldric Chang

Thanks for clarifying for us. Yes that’s correct! And to add on – you absolutely don’t have to do any more micro transactions if you don’t want to. The original price you pay for will already give you a very complete experience!

Lucidfeuer

“subscription and micro-transaction”, I wonder when the whole VG market will crash, it’s still not happened and yet it’s becoming a real stretch. And to say GTA V (Rockstar/T2) are the only ones to have done it right.

NopeNope

If this will be a reboot with better graphics, will all current owners of Sairento, which just came out of EA, get a copy in their libraries as well? If not, I’m not buying this game, and I’m not going to buy another game from this developer.

Aldric Chang

Hey, I’m the developer for Sairento. This won’t be a reboot or remake of the original game to clarify. It’s a completely new game – like God of War 3 compared to God of War 2 or God of War 1.

Rex Thorne

I wouldn’t worry about a negative, entitled, person that calls themselves “NopeNope” and demands free games.

Brett Stubbs

Don’t you hate it when a developer makes an amazing game and gives you hours and hours of fun for their hard work, and then just want to turn around and make an even better experience, and give you even more hours or fun and fun?? I prefer developers who make meh games and then ten years later release another meh game. Definitely the way to go…

Blackfire1

You people dont know how to read.

Aldric Chang

Hi Guys, I’m on the development team for Sairento. Just want to clarify a couple of things.

1. 3000% of ROI is correct. But we made only $900,000 and not $9 million. Probably a little miscomm with the writer. Our initial capital was $30,000, which we used to build the first Early Access version. Thereafter we reinvested whatever money we earned from the EA sales to continue building the game.

2. Our second game won’t be a reboot or remake of the original game to clarify. It’s a completely new game – like God of War 3 compared to God of War 2 or God of War 1. You also absolutely don’t have to do any more micro transactions if you don’t want to. The original price you pay for will already give you a very complete experience. Just think of the new content add-ons as DLC.

Thanks!

kool

Can bundle them both for $60 on the psvr plz!

jj

Heck yes! I love the evolution of Sariento, it has been one of the best games ever!

kool

I cant wait for the psvr version! I hope this comes with it too id pay $60

Question for Aldric: Will you be supporting and updating Sairento VR in the meantime? We love the game, it just still has a number of outstanding co-op, pvp and network bugs to squash. Tons of fun though – thanks for making one of the best VR shooters out there!

Aldric Chang

Hey Sandman, yes, we will be continually supporting and updating Sairento for sure! You will notice on our Steam page that we have been fixing bugs regularly and making good progress on the clipping issues. Thanks for your support man! :)

Gato Satanista

This is a game I always wanted to buy but never actually did. It seems nice but the words “wave shooter” keeps flashing in my brain telling me to not buy this one.

Morfium

While you are playing it feels like you are the wave crushing through the enemies though. :P
Usually you are moving from room to room and never really stand still.
When I play I’m like 99% of the time flying around (or running on walls) shooting arrows in short bursts of slomo. Feels awesome. :)
Plus, backflips are super fun!

B mill

Hey Mixed Realms, I love the mechanics of Sairento, if tweaked right they could be used for another great IP. Talk to Harmony Gold and see if they’ll strike a deal so you can do a Robotech game with controls similar to Sairento, I imagine if you guys like that anime at all you could make a fantastic VR game in that universe.